Various forms of microtome chucks for retaining tissue workpieces for cutting are known. For example, known microtomes incorporate chucks that retain the tissue specimen block in a particular orientation for a cutting operation. In one example, the chuck moves relative to the blade while retaining the mounted tissue specimen in an otherwise fixed orientation.
One disadvantage of known microtome chucks is limitation on positioning the retained tissue specimen block. Where non-uniform tissue samples are provided this can require removal and manual reorientation of the tissue specimen block on the chuck in order to obtain a desired tissue section. This may result in waste of material as well.
Some known microtome chucks, if rotatable, are rotatable in one dimension only. Furthermore, if laboratory personnel desire to return the tissue chuck to an initial or previous position, it is difficult to return the tissue chuck exactly to the initial or previous position.
Another disadvantage of typical known microtome chucks is that a center of rotation for rotatable chucks is located at the chuck, which is a certain distance away from a cutting plane. This causes the tissue specimen to turn away from a cutting blade during adjustment of the tissue chuck.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a material workpiece chuck that is adjustable in multiple dimensions.